Learn
Digital memory, explained.
Everything Shelf believes about keeping things, in one place: how retrieval works when you can't remember a name, what context is worth, and why a memory should stay on your own machine.
Digital memory
What a second memory actually is.
Storage answers where a file is. Memory answers what that thing you half-remember was. The difference is the whole category.
Retrieval
Finding things without naming them.
Recall is fuzzy. Retrieval should be too. These pages cover searching by meaning and following the connections around a result.
Capture
The kinds of memory Shelf holds.
Screenshots, links, documents and notes each break down in a different way. Each page starts from that specific failure.
Privacy
Where your memory lives.
A second memory holds unfinished, personal material. These pages state plainly what stays on your Mac and what does not.
Writing
Notes from building Shelf.
Longer, slower pieces about memory, software and attention.
Shelf V3 is out now
Shelf V3 is the current build. Shelf does not use automatic updates, so download the latest build here and install it over your current version.
This is intentional. Shelf is built around a local-first, privacy-focused philosophy. An automatic updater requires additional background processes, network connections, update infrastructure, and another system with permission to modify the app. We prefer to keep Shelf’s network footprint and background activity as small as possible.
Manual updates keep the process explicit: Shelf only checks the internet when a feature actually needs it, and you decide when a new version is downloaded and installed.